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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?
Lung Health | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (3424)Comment receiving replies
Our cases are indeed very similar.
It's funny you mention sleep issues. What I know for sure is that at time of onset I hadn't had more than about 4-5 hours sleep per night in over 12 months, and that remained the case until quite recently after being prescribed melatonin. There were a couple of reasons; 1) I had a heart arrhythmia and required blood thinners and anti arrhythmia drugs before and after a catheter ablation procedure and they interfered with my sleep (the procedure fixed the arrhythmia and my heart tests have all been clear) and 2) I had an enormously stressful period at work from late 2022 until June 2023. I also note that I have become a mouth breather, which I suspect has changed with the SOB issues. I snore, but not always. Interested in whether you think there could be a link here?
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I’m glad you got the heart issues figured out and dealt with. Heart issues can contribute to breathing issues. I wonder if the enormous stress affected this in some way. Many people find that stress can cause breathing issue and for it to “get out of control” in stressful situations. Think of like police officers who get in immediate danger - they don’t often exert themselves but they breathe like they sprinted due to the stress response.
Did you ever deal with the stress directly or do you feel it went away this summer?
I also know that snoring and heavy mouth breathing in general can also induce somewhat of a stress response or can cause sort of a low grade habitual chronic hyperventilation which is what I think happened with me til I dealt with the nighttime heavy breathing